There is a substantial business in household and commercial pan sprays, the vast majority of which depends on lecithin-based aerosol-delivered products. A number of patents have issued over the years on improvements in these pan sprays including U.S. Pat. No. 3,896,975, U.S. Pat. No. 4,073,412, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,188,412.
Despite these efforts at optimizing pan spray formulation, there is not to my knowledge available on the market a clear-depositing, clear heating effective, lecithin-based and aerosol delivered pan spray free of maleffects such as obnoxious vapor. Consumers prefer pan sprays which most closely resemble the vegetable oils they replace. Such oils are clear when poured and when heated. They do not foam. Pan sprays, however, typically do foam, e.g. by the boiling off of their water content, or due to the surfactant effect of the lecithin content, unless they contain substantial amounts of alcohol, e.g. above 7.5% up to 15% or more alcohol by weight, e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 4,188,412. Consumers are increasingly unwilling to tolerate such a substantial alcohol content which is associated with obnoxious, astringent vapors when volatilized, as when heated in a pan. The consumer thus has the choice only of pan sprays which deposit as a foam and then go clear when heated, or those sprays which deposit as an opaque liquid and foam upon heating, i.e. emulsion or water based systems, or the substantial alcohol containing systems. Until the present invention.